5 ms·
What a silly set of arguments: 1) "We have ethical responsibilities to cats as well as to biodiversity" 2) "[Compared to humans] are we really to believe that
by flashman 11y ago
What a silly set of arguments:
1) "We have ethical responsibilities to cats as well as to biodiversity"
2) "[Compared to humans] are we really to believe that it is cats who are the enemy of biodiversity?"
3) "Out of respect for cats and the people who care for them, we should give preference to nonlethal alternatives in management first and foremost."
To which I say:
1) There will always be more cats. We're nearly out of some of their prey, such as brush-tailed bettongs and mountain pygmy possums.
2) Your argument is humans are worse, therefore we shouldn't do anything about cats? Really?
3) This is a reasonable point, insofar as you can figure out an ethical way to deal with an undomesticated cat once you've caught it.
- silly1 11y agoI've hunted and killed feral cats on properties before, good luck doing any kind of rehoming with a feral cat. They are a lost cause.
- setpatchaddress 11y agoYou don't 'rehome' a feral cat. You do TNR. Safe, humane, and effective. <http://www.neighborhoodcats.org/HOW_TO_WHAT_IS_TNR> http://www.neighborhoodcats.org/HOW_TO_WHAT_IS_TNR>
- vacri 11y agoThe arguments in that article don't seem to ring true. It's claiming that simple trap-and-remove just has other cats move into the area and that if you don't catch all of them, the breeding pairs bring population back to the same level. But with TNR, the population is never reduced, since you put them back; you have the same problem with breeders if you don't catch them all; and when the neutered cats start dying out, they'll be replaced by the same neighbours anyway.
- jacobush 11y agoNeutered cats compete for resources that otherwise breeding ones would access.
- vacri 11y agoSo you have a full competing population, otherwise there'd be spare for the breeding cats. Then when the neutered ones die, existing breeders fill in the gaps, or, as the article says, neighbours come in.
- pvaldes 11y agommmh... yes and no. Neutered male cats are bottom feeders in the cat societies. They will be attacked and easily displaced from the best areas by the other cats. Maybe is diferent for neutered females. Females stay in the same territory with her mothers often, they only move when are in heat and there is not any appropiate male at sight.
- eveningcoffee 11y agoThese kind of dilemmas are not unique. Here is an example from a fellow user https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10385725 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10385725